Monday, April 4, 2016

Falsified Medicine Analysis

Proliferation
of counterfeit medicine market is a great concern to government regulatory
agencies, pharmaceutical companies, health care providers and consumers.
However, its percentage is continuously increasing not only in poor and
developing countries but also in developed ones. Unfortunately, counterfeiting
is one of the most underrated issues in the world that contributes largely to morbidity,
mortality and drug intoxication of people of ages, religions and cultures.

One of the
reasons why there is the domination of counterfeit medicines is the lack of attention
given by the rightful authorities. Even with the strict policies, many national
governments are focused on the smuggling of illegal drugs such as opium and
heroin in their countries that the seemingly “legit” pharmaceutical drugs pass
their investigation. Cities know for strict implementation of policies against
smuggled drugs includes Jakarta, Indonesia, Singapore, Victoria, Hong Kong and
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yet these countries are also among the countries which
have the highest number of counterfeit cases.

Only a few
and only those dedicated in this special case give concern for the worsening
number of counterfeit medicines victims in the world - included in this are the
non-profit organizations with the ultimate advocacy to obliterate the number of
fraudulent cases. In their effort to eliminate drug
counterfeiting from the main problems of the world, studies and reviews are being created because
of this.

The Peterson Group, one of these
concerned NGOs has developed falsified medicine analysis for years and has
reported special cases vital in determining the total scale of the problem. Their
falsified medicine analysis expertise is ideally positioned to address the
highly technical issues involved in investigating the increasingly
sophisticated falsified medicines or counterfeit medicines being discovered in
legitimate supply chains. As a key tool in our pharmaceutical supply chain
surveillance for counterfeit medicines services, our laboratory network employ
a wide scope of investigative analytical technology such as mass spectrometry
(MS), infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, RAMAN spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS),
liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and more, to explore and
assist in the identification of fake medicines.

With the
assistance of advanced research labs funded by concerned pharmaceutical
companies and individuals, these systems are already underway in determining
the impact of counterfeit medicines in a region by region scale. Some of these
methods may take a lot of time to
produce results but with proper effort and support, falsified medicine
analysis, which seems too complicated in the early times, can be more comprehensive.